Hide and Seek
by LuciousLadyLucius
Summary: When Rose and the Doctor discover a strange being they are flung into a world of revolution, conspiracy and murder.
1. Chapter 1

Doctor Who – Hide and Seek

Chapter 1

The control panel made a loud beeping noise it filled the TARDIS, the Doctor jumped up in surprise and curiosity.

"What is it?"

"Strange…very strange" the Doctor said. The TARDIS control was now acting very strangely, bizarre purple lights were flickering up the tubes and wires "We're getting alien messages"

"Is that normal?"

"it used to be when there were more time travellers about we used to often send messages to each other by time and space machines….but this, this isn't from a machine or any machine I've ever seen anyway. It's coming from" the Doctor paused and squinted closely at the strange lights "Its coming from a living creature"

"An alien?" asked Rose

"Yeh but…there are only one race of alien who can send messages from living to machine" the Doctor looked terribly confused "but why this"

"What are they saying?"

"Just 'help'!"

"'Help?'" repeated Rose

"Yeh again and again" he traced the lights with his finger "Alien code, just 'help, help, help, help,' what from…Rose check the computer what are we travelling over" he asked urgently, Rose jumped over to the control panel

"Planet 24343 – unregistered – the Salenite galaxy…mean anything to you?" asked Rose. The Doctor pulled a lever and the TARDIS shuddered

"A planet used only for factory and laboratory work. Lots of those here in the Salenite galaxy" The Doctor began to press a series of buttons on the control panel "oh…that's lucky" he smiled

"What is?"

"The message seems to be coming from this planet!"

"Time to land?" asked Rose her hand on a large lever which allowed them to land on the ground safely at that time

"I'll say"

The Doctor opened the door; he stood still in the doorway and looked around. Rose stood up on the tip of her trainers to see above the Doctor's shoulder. There was not much to see just a lot of desert and sand rocky hills. The Doctor looked up at the dark crimson sky

"Very strange, I've never seen Salenite sky this red…it's like blood"

"It gives me the creeps" said Rose suddenly she gasped "Doctor, look at the sun" she pointed up at the sky. The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS allowing Rose to return to normal height and follow him. The Doctor looked up at the sun; it was much larger than the Earth sun in a maroon red. It burned down upon the planet

"It's so hot" Rose said unhelpfully

"Lets take a look around their may be a chance that the message was coming from a little further away." Rose was half taking off her tracksuit top when the Doctor pulled it back on her "Keep it on, it may be hot but the more skin exposed to that" the Doctor pointed to the sun "The more chance you have burning"

"Burning? How bad?"

"In this heat" the Doctor looked around "Wouldn't be surprised if you fried like an egg"

"Great no wonder this person wanted help"

Rose and the Doctor wandered around the deserted landscape for while searching the rocky mountains for gorges where someone could get stuck. Rose ran her hands through her hair. The sweat on her head glistened and ran down her face. Not far away in the distance Rose could see a large gust of smoke coming from the ground and filling the sky, Rose looked at the Doctor, his eyes were narrowed and staring at the black smoke curiously, Rose stopped for a second and the Doctor did not argue but joined her

"Do you have any water?" Rose asked; the Doctor shook his head and looked around he looked over into the distance behind where Rose was standing. His eyes widened in horror he ran passed Rose. Rose flicked her head around quickly to see why he was running. On the floor in the distance was a small figure laying out in the hot red sun. Rose ran after him, the heat filled her head making her feel dizzy. The Doctor crouched next to the figure

"It's a child" the Doctor shouted out to Rose "Not sure where from but this planet doesn't have a native species" he continued as she crouched on the other side of the unconscious child.

"Does that really matter…she's just a little girl, where's her parents"

"It's just a guess but I think she's probably been left here" the Doctor said sarcastically

"She's so thin" Rose said as she touched the skin of the little girl. It was true the child look half starved the skin was stretched over the jaw you could practically see her teeth under her skin she was so skeletal. A scarf was tied around her head like a turban. Her clothes consisted what looked like a, was once, white linen summer dress. She wore no shoes just pieces of material wrapped around her small feet.

"Is she alive?" asked Rose, the Doctor put his hand on her wrist and concentrated

"Just…we have to get her to the TARDIS give me a hand will you?" Rose helped the Doctor pick the little girl up in his arms to carry her back. The little girl's head lay back

"Where do you think she's from?" asked Rose

"Well if it was her making the messages, I would say she was from Zelnt"

"Where's that" she wondered. The Doctor paused

"On the other side of the galaxy so how she got here I don't know?"

The overbearing sun continued to bear down on them mercilessly; they were walking slower now they were carrying another person so Rose found the heat twice as bad as on the way there, Rose began to see mirages. She saw somebody giving out ice creams, and a woman taking out a bottle of water from a large bucket of ice offering it to Rose. Everything was so real; Rose had her hand out to take the bottle of water

"Its not there Rose" the Doctor said exasperatedly as if he could see the same images as Rose could. The mirages disappeared and Rose continued to walk through the terrible desert. Then she saw it, oh please let it be real she thought, the TARDIS! It had never looked so fantastic it was waiting there for them

"Is it there?" asked Rose asked happily, the Doctor chuckled

"Yep its there alright"

Rose pulled out her duvet and laid it on the floor. The Doctor placed the little girl down

"Go get some water, tea and some biscuits" the Doctor said

"But…" Rose argued

"I'm the Doctor I examine what's wrong with her" he said

"Yeah but what do you know about medicine"

"Stop babbling, if you want to help then get water, tea and biscuits!" he said urgently. Rose shook her head and walked off to make the tea. Rose was happy to be in the cool air conditioned TARDIS but the sudden change in temperature had made Rose slightly dizzy and feel a little nauseas.

The Doctor examined the little girl's arms; they were marked with injection holes bright and raw. The Doctor took the scarf off the little girl's head. He was horrified. The little girl's hair was a very light blonde it was thin, dirty and bits were not there, like a doll belonging to a child who took pleasure from ripping the hair out of the toy. The Doctor saw the child had stitches along her hair line as if she had been cut up and sewn back together badly. Rose came in with tea and biscuits and a couple of glasses of water on a tray. She sat down on the floor placing it next to her. The Doctor pointed out the stitches to Rose, she gasped, then the Doctor showed Rose the marked arms of the little girl as well

"That's sick...it's like she's been experimented on or something!"

"That's exactly it; here give me that glass of water." Rose gave it to him. The Doctor held the head of the little girl up and trickled some water into her mouth. The child suddenly coughed and spluttered. The Doctor smiled. The little girl rubbed her eyes and looked up at the Doctor and Rose, she screamed and kicked her legs violently.

"Hold her down Rose!" the Doctor ordered, Rose obliged and held the child's legs down

"Shh don't be afraid we've come to help you" he said. The little girl began to whimper, "We got your distress signal"

The girl looked at Rose and the Doctor terrified. She had stopped kicking so Rose let go of her legs

"Hi I'm the Doctor"

"I'm Rose"

"Here drink this" the Doctor handed her a cup of tea

"What is it?" she asked in a voice so soft that it was barely a whisper

"It will give you your strength back…careful it's hot"

The Doctor and Rose stayed with her while she drank the tea after that she went to sleep soundly

Rose and the Doctor walked away to the control panel to talk

"What do you think happened to her?"

"Remember I said that the planet was probably used for factory and laboratory work?"

"Yes"

"Well I don't think they were following the rules too much, she's still a child and the conditions she worked in did not seem fit for an adult let alone a child by what she looks like"

"There were others like her?" Rose gasped

"Probably, there were probably hundreds of children there"

"Well we have to go and rescue them." Rose said leaning towards the door

"No! It's too late I think that girl managed to escape…the factory may have burned down…that would also explain why the sky was so red and full of smoke, the fire mixes with the atmosphere. The others were probably still in there."

"That's dreadful…what are we going to do"

"we'll take her back to Zelnt or wherever she comes from and tell them about it"

"We can ask the girl, when she wakes up, what happened"

"Yeh...if she wants to speak, she may refuse"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Rose and the Doctor sat silently by the control panel, both there heads were filled with questions for the little girl, why was she there? who was she? How long had she been there for? Rose had been biting her lip for a while now; the Doctor had asked her to stop every now and then because it looked 'really painful' but other than that neither Rose nor the Doctor spoke much at all.

"Do you think she will speak, you know about what happened there?" asked Rose

"Maybe...then again, maybe not" the Doctor replied "All I know is that she needs to be back to wherever she comes from"

"Is that such a good idea though? I mean perhaps the reason she was on that planet was because of where she comes from."

"It's a possibility, we'll see" said the Doctor. Rose bit her lip again, the Doctor winced. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth

"Ouch" she moaned putting her fingers to her lips

"I told you to stop" the Doctor nagged

"Yeah yeah I know" Rose wiped her mouth on her sleeve

"Hello there" the Doctor said looking over Rose's shoulder. Rose turned around she saw the little girl standing in front of them.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked, the little girl did not reply

"Er we're going to need to ask you some questions is that okay?" asked the Doctor. The little girl said nothing she walked over to Rose and the Doctor and sat down on one of the large TARDIS chairs and looked up at them with her big blue eyes

"Alright…what are your questions" she asked. Her accent sounded English

"er well we're glad you want to speak but if there's something you don't want to talk about or you want to stop speaking at anytime you can"

"very well"

"Now lets start simply, what's your name?"

"In the factory I was called Eiye"

"So that's what you were doing on the planet, you were working in a factory?"

"Yes…for…" she looked up as if thinking and counted along her tiny fingers "3 years"

"did you want to work there?" asked Rose, the little girl shook her head

"When I was four my parents died and I went to live with my Uncle. I lived with him until I was six, then one day he told me that I was going on holiday with lots of other children like me and that it would be a long time, I asked why I was going and he said that someone had given him money to make me go. I did not understand at the time." Rose looked shocked; the Doctor gave her a stern look. "I was put on a space ship with lots of other children; we were all very excited about going on holiday. We were in the ship for a long time because I remember going to sleep a number of times. When we landed we were all led out onto a very hot desert and taken down under the ground to the factories"

"Now these factories, what did you do in them"

"It changed, sometimes we helped make things, the older children did the harder stuff and we helped them. They made large metal things sometimes I don't know what they were though. Sometimes we cleaned things, things that the bigger children could not do. We had to go in little holes and fix or clean things. Other times we were called down in groups to the white rooms"

"The white rooms?"

"I do not know what they were really called but all the children there called them the white rooms."

"What happened in the white rooms Eiye?" the Doctor asked curiously but was already guessing the answers

"Lots of things really, the first time I went down there they put me on a chair"

"Who's 'they?'" There were men and ladies in white coats. I never saw their faces, they was white masks. A lady came up to me and put a needle in my arm. I screamed and started to cry, she told me to stop it, but I didn't, she slapped my face but I cried louder. She signalled to other people in masks and they picked me up and put me on a table. They took out another needle; I cried again but went to sleep."

"What happened when you woke up?"

"I was in my dormitory with the other children asleep. I don't know why I was taken put on that table and put asleep"

"Did you ever go to the white room again?"

"Yes lots of times but I was never put on the table, I only had injections, sometimes; they would put metal cases on my body and on my head they press lots of buttons. I did not cry again I did not feel any pain either. I only screamed if I was scared. Like when…" she paused and looked down

"Go on" said the Doctor

"In the factory last night, an older boy dropped a machine he had been making it went up in flames so did he and the little boy helping him. Every tried to run away but the men in white coats told us that if we left the sun would kill us instead. Everyone stayed while the fire spread. I ran I did not care about the sun, I ran out of the door I had come through when I arrived. I wandered around the desert I tried to make to concentrate. My uncle told me once that if you thought about something enough, it would come true. I was thinking about being rescued. You rescued me"

"And what about the factory?"

"It burnt away under ground I saw it engulfed in the flames"

Rose hugged Eiye warmly. She was still. Cold as ice, Rose thought the little girl might have cried from losing any friends in the factory. She said she had never cried since the day she was put on the table, was that an experiment.

"What planet are you from?" the Doctor asked

"Zelnt"

"I thought so, your uncle was right if YOU think about something enough it will happen"

"My uncle sold me to that horrible factory, did he think of selling me off a lot then for it to come true"

"We're going to get you back to Zelnt, we'll tell your leader what has been going on then perhaps he can stop any other factories like this." The Doctor explained. Eiye nodded

"I'm tired now can I go to sleep."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Will the Zelnt leader help" Rose asked the Doctor as he began to link things on the control panel to go to Zelnt

"Should do, Zelnt is a poor planet but its people are happy. It means that their government must look after them quite well"

"Poor but happy, that's good to know, it could set an example than money is not everything"

"That's an idea tell them when we get there"

"No…it might insult them" Rose said

"That's also an idea"

"I don't believe places like those factories exist, on Earth people complain that factory workers don't get paid enough not about being experimented on"

"Well that's humans for you isn't it, they're so wrapped up in their own little world. They don't give a stuff about what happens up here"

"That's not true we just know that there's anything 'up here' yet" Rose said defensively

"Well they don't try very hard to find out do they? Right are we ready to go" The Doctor said his hand on the lever

"you bet I can't wait to get out of this stinking desert" The Doctor pulled down the lever, the usual humming machine sound started and the lights flashed

The Doctor opened the door to let in the bright sunlight of Zelnt, before either of them could say anything a dark girl in a brightly patterned dress jumped in front of the door

"Hello and welcome to Zelnt we hope your stay here will be pleasant" She had an ear to ear smile showing of her shining white teeth. She reminded Rose of a Hollywood air hostessHawaiian hula girl. The Doctor nodded at her and grinned

"I'm sure we will" the Doctor said. The woman stepped a side and flicked her long silk black hair behind her ears. The Doctor and Rose stepped out of the TARDIS followed by Eiye.

"You can leave your transport here, it will be brought down soon…this way to the elevators" she signalled

"Brought down soon? Elevators?" asked the Doctor

"I see you know very little of Zelnt sir, Zelnt is mainly under water"

"It didn't used to be" said the Doctor confusedly

"When a meteorite hit Zelnt our weather changed so much we adapted our ways of life under the sea. For further information you may find a tour guide Zelnt-droid"

"Droid?" the Doctor repeated. He looked at the girl's stuck smiling appearance. "Please excuse me" He touched under her chine. There was a button. The Doctor pressed it. The pretty girl's face split into two allowing the Doctor see a series of wires and electric lights buzzing. Rose laughed; Eiye looked sombrely at the robot saying not a word. "A robot, I thought so" The Doctor pressed the button again and her face closed into one

"As I was saying sir, this way to the elevators if you please"

Rose took Eiye's hand and they followed the robot woman. Ahead of them they saw a glass elevator sticking out of the sea from what looked like a boardwalk. They walked across the wooden platform and into the glass elevator. The woman pressed some buttons

"Going down" she said optimistically. Rose felt her stomach lurch and the elevator swooped down. Rose looked at the Doctor who had gone white

"You're not scared of lifts are you?"

"Don't be stupid…I just didn't expect it to go so fast that's all" he explained. Rose looked down at Eiye, she was totally unmoved by the event of the zooming elevator. Just like the robot woman was.

They landed on the ground softly, through the glass; Rose saw that the lift had landed in a glass encasement. No, it was a whole room. Rose looked into the distance and noticed that the whole city was under the glass, dry and safe from the surrounding sea. It was strange, every building was primitive and worn down, Rose recognised these hut like buildings as something found in a poverty stricken country in Africa or Asia shown on television. These buildings would usually be found in dry hot settings not in the middle of the sea under a humungous glass conservatory. The door opened wide and allowed the Doctor, Rose and Eiye to leave.

"Thank-you for coming to Zelnt, are you planning to stay" A woman almost identical to the robot in the lift had stepped in front of them

"We've come to see your leader, The Zelntitian leader" The Doctor said casually

"I'm sorry do you have an invitation"

"Yes of course" the Doctor picked up Eiye quickly and thrust her in front of the woman's face "This is my invitation." The Doctor held Eiye's arm out in front of the woman, the woman made no acknowledgment of the terrible marks on the girl's arm.

"You cannot enter her Empress' Palace without a written invitation signed and stamped by the 'Zelntitian government entry council'

"Another Droid, I thought so" the Doctor sighed and put the little girl down again

"I do hope your trip has not been wasted, Zelnt has other very interesting–"

"Take us to the palace gates leave getting in to us" the Doctor ordered

"Yes sir" she said and turned on her heel leading them along the sandy road

"How're we supposed to get in" Rose whispered to the Doctor

"Zelntitions are curious creatures, I'm sure that the Empress will want to see the last Time Lord and a human being"

"You're modest aren't you" Rose said sarcastically shaking her blonde head. The Doctor ignored her and walked ahead

"The palaces were quite special last time I was here…not sure what they're like now they've moved underwater. Civilisations probably even poorer than before since everything was rebuilt, I knew the Emperor…good ruler come to think of it I wonder if he'll remember me"

"Oh who could forget you?" Rose said linking arms with him, the little girl walking silently next to them. Rose looked at the people outside their huts; every one of them had dark hair and tanned skin. There was not a single light haired or pale citizen among them.

"Doctor…why are all of these Zelntitions dark….Eiye's blonde and pale"

"I noticed that…it's probably resulted from her experiments…something could have gone under her skin and in her hair…a type of bleach"

"Scary" Rose shivered

"Only the Royals are naturally light…actually once there was a plot to take over the throne about 100 years ago, peasant Zelntitions. They didn't manage to take control but the Emperor and all his immediate heirs were sent away and murdered…every one of them"

"That's dreadful" said Rose "but if they were all murdered how is it that the Royal Family were not taken over?"

"Dunno? It was all covered up after that…pretty embarrassing for the Zelntitian Royal family it was…you know; a proud race almost taken over by a bunch of peasants"

Rose nodded; she looked down at Eiye she was looking up at the Doctor with her mouth open as if she knew exactly what he was talking about. Rose could not help thinking that the little girl was more than what she seemed. Perhaps it was what had happened to her. In this miniature paradise of Zelnt who could possibly imagine that innocent children had been sent for experiments

"How far is it to the Palace?"

"It is not much farther to the palace you can see it just in the distance" the Droid pointed to a large palace like building ahead of them "By the way, feel free to call me Shana"

"Shana?" asked the Doctor

"Yes?"

"Nothing"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Doctor, Rose and Eiye stood in front of the gates of the palace. They were tall and made of iron, it may not have been iron, Rose was not entirely sure what half the materials were around her were but the metal certainly looked like iron. The gates lead to a large courtyard full of exotic plants. A marble pathway ran through the courtyard to the palace, a stream on each side of the path ran along next to it. A man dressed in red armour stood behind the bars of the gates. He wore a black metal helmet but Rose could see a glimmer of black hair which fell ever so slightly into his brown eyes. He was really quite handsome; Rose's concentration was taken off the courtyard and palace.

"I'm afraid there are no tours today" The guard said solemnly

"We're not here for a tour, we've come to see the Emperor" the Doctor gabbled

"The Empress!" the guard corrected. The Doctor's brow furrowed and was about to argue back "She will see no one"

"Why?"

"No one is safe to her Majesty since the uprising" the guard explained

"Oh don't worry about us…I've come to see er...His….er Her Majesty on important business" The Doctor looked around to see if anyone was listening to their conversation he then whispered "you see I'm a Time Lord!" The guard looked shocked, he gasped

"But that's impossible!" The guard lowered his voice "they're all dead" The Doctor winced and replied soberly

"Yes I am aware of that…but I managed to survive, I am the last Time Lord…I'm the Doctor, this is Rose: an ape from Earth and Eiye: one of your own people" The guard looked down at the small child who held Rose's hand tightly

"There must be some mistake…only the Royal Family of Zelnt have fair hair…she cannot be Zelntitian"

"Well that's why we're here to find out exactly what's going on" Rose said knowledgeably

"Naturally miss. My my my the last Time Lord…yes her Majesty the Empress will be very interested to meet you after all"

The gates opened for them, the guard bowed to them

"If you please, come this way" The guard led them to the palace doors and took them inside. The inside of the palace was made entirely of marble, Rose's eyes widened with awe at the high marble ceilings carefully decorated with murals of powerful Royal Zelntitions. The murals showed Coronations, successful war scenes, marriages and Royals helping the poor. The hallway was lined with guards identically dressed to the guard leading the Doctor, Rose and Eiye. The Guard took them to a large archway covered with a soft pink chiffon curtain. To women stood on either side of the curtain, Rose was certain they were not droids, as they looked different to each other and lacked the permanently fixed smiles. The women were dressed in elegant green silk dresses which fell to their ankles. They pulled two long pieces of ribbon. The curtain rose allowing the three guests to see into a magnificent throne room. Rich elegant Zelntitions royal and gentry gathered around the sides of a large marble floor. A display was on, about 20 dancers danced for the wealthy spectators. The women wore long chiffon skirts and silk tops showing their stomachs. They reminded Rose greatly of belly dancers. The men wore silk trousers and silk waistcoats they danced elegantly with the belly dancer-like women. Lifting them and spinning them around. Some of the women held long red scarves which flicked around, hypnotising their audience, as they turned gracefully. Rose gaped at the spectacular show, the Doctor grinned and as usual Eiye made no reaction at all. Suddenly the dancing stopped and the dancers lay on the floor. Rose looked up. A woman draped in fine clothes of silk and other expensive materials had stood up tall. Rose took it that she was the Empress as she had stood up from a throne. Her hand was held in front of her in a halt signal, the sudden drop of the dancers created a breeze that ran through the throne room. Her soft silvery blonde hair wavered gently in the breeze. She looked at the guests with her steely blue eyes. Her hand lowered

"Who goes!" her voice was light and silky

"I'm the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler and…Eiye" He signalled to Rose and Eiye

"The Doctor?"

"Yes I'm sorry to barge in like this but we need to talk to you"

"Speak" she waved her hand casually and sat back on her throne

"Er…I would prefer to talk in private" the Doctor said hinting at the gathering of wealthy Zelntitions and other beings.

"Whatever you have to say to me Doctor, you can say to my guests"

"Are you aware of the industrial planets on the other Salenite galaxy" the Doctor asked, the Empress looked curious and replied coolly

"naturally"

"Good then you can explain why children are being experimented on there" The gathering of aliens began to mumble audibly

"What are you talking about?" her eyes journeyed to the little girl and the stitches that were displayed on her hair line

"I think you know" the Doctor said

The woman walked off her throne the floor cleared for her as she walked across the marble. Now she was closer Rose realised how beautiful the Empress was, her face was so pale that it seemed that a light from under her skin was glowing. Her lips were shapely and in deep red from make up. Her eyes were a beautiful topaz blue sprinkled with black lashes which looked down her aquiline nose. Even the Doctor's eyes seemed to widen as she walked closer. Her shoulders dropped, her neck long and her expression haughty. Rose grinned at him but his face was stone cold.

"This way Doctor!" she said swooping past him, she went through the arch way gracefully as if she was walking on air. The guards stood up straight as she flew down the corridor, still walking but at a quick pace. The Doctor followed behind her in a similar fashion, Rose and Eiye jogged a little to keep up.

"Open these doors" she ordered to two guards outside a room, they obliged "Guard these doors…let no one enter, Come Doctor and…friend" she added

They entered the room and the Empress locked the door behind her. The Empress turned around to Rose and the Doctor

"Now" she gave a sigh "What is it that you want exactly?"

"Now before I accuse anyone I want to let you know that I don't believe it's your fault…I think it's happening behind your back, we're just informing you"

"And what is it you are informing me of?"

"This morning I received a distress signal to my ship the TARDIS, it was from a living creature and of course only Zelntitions can send messages from the brain to machine. The problem was Zelnt was on the far other side of the Salenite galaxy and the Salenite Galaxy is massive" the Doctor indicated with his hands the vastness of the galaxy "I mean we're talking about zillions of light years in diameter!" The Empress nodded in agreement and sat down on a throne like chair "So how was a Zelntition's message getting to my ship?" The Empress shrugged

"Get on with it Doctor you're being far too dull!" she moaned

"Hey this is serious!" Rose nagged "Why you being so rude, will you listen to what he's saying" The Empress rolled her eyes

"Anyway we landed on the planet we thought it was coming from, planet 24343, an industrial planet…there seemed to have been a fire there, the sun was deep red and the sky was very much similar, there was black smoke every where on this desert planet and one survivor" the Doctor signalled to Eiye

"So you are telling me that a child is your only witness for the "happenings" in these factories…well that won't be much in the case of going to court, those factories are important to us Zelntitions we rely on them greatly. So naturally the jury, in the case of this going to court, would be very biased towards the argument, myself included"

"Why do you rely on them so much, Zelnt is huge why don't you just put them here so you can make checks on them frequently" the Doctor asked, the Empress got up out of her seat and walked to ward the an urn of blue porcelain, her long fingers stroked it absent mindedly.

"That was the mistake that my predecessor made, putting the workers where they could get him. He made it easy for them to go on strike at any little inconvenience for them which caused work to get behind time which angered the masses. That is why there was a near revolution. They kidnapped the Emperor and murdered him in his bed and burnt his corpse. The ashes in this urn are all that are left of my predecessor. The rest of his family, some of which were my relatives, had a similar fate. Some taken hostage for high prices, the hostage takers would collect their ransom and murder their victims anyway, others were just murdered on the spot." She said casually

"How did the uprising stop…where did you come from"

"My family and court were residing in Raxacoricofallapatorius in working closely with the ambassadors of the Raxacoricofallapatorians, I received news of the uprising and gathered and army of Zelntitions on Raxacoricofallapatorius that I had and we fought them back."

"How strange that a small gathering of Zelntitions in another galaxy can fight back the uprising of angry peasants, it's odd don't you think?"

"They were terrified that we would call in the Raxacoricofallapatorian army which we threatened to do!" she seemed to fight back furiously at the Doctor's insinuations

"With no disrespect I can imagine the Raxacoricofallapatorians having a lot better things to do than to fight the wars of an inconsequential planet such as Zelnt, or what? Does their government owe you a favour; do you and their president go way back? Why would they help you?" The Doctor taunted

"I beg your pardon Doctor but how dare you speak to me in this manner, the Zelntitions are not an inconsequential race by far, we survived the Time War unlike your weak and feeble race. How dare a Time Lord speak to me in this disgusting hypocritical–" her words were cut short Rose had let go of holding Eiye's hand and had marched up to the Empress and had slapped her cleanly around the face. A red mark spread across the Empress's cheek

"Er Rose? That was not a smart move"

"I didn't think so either"

"But thanks anyhow"

"Your welcome" They both looked over at the Empress, she was fuming; her icy blue eyes since widening from the shock of being slapped had now narrowed into slits. Her lips thinned and her nostrils flared. Her soft narrow shoulder shook with anger right down to her clenched fists. She then, taking the Doctor and Rose completely by surprise walked straight passed Rose and the Doctor and headed to the door, she unlocked it with a large metal key. The Empress turned around and grabbed the urn of ashes and flung it to the floor. The porcelain smashed allowing the grey ashes to fly out across the clean marble floor. The Empress screamed and flung her self down next to them on the floor.

"What the–" Rose began but was stopped when several guards rushed in

"You're Majesty?"

"They are supporters of the uprising, they wish to assassinate me! Seize them both!"

"What? No you've made a mistake" the Doctor shouted but to no expense. The guards pulled the Doctor and Rose's arms behind their backs. One also picked up Eiye and began to carry her out of the room kicking her little legs

"Leave the child, she is an innocent child of the people, caught up in this feud of politics, let me take her" the Empress, who was now firmly on her feet took the little girl in her red painted talons. "No don't let me go with her please don't let me go with her" The Doctor looked at the conniving yet beautiful woman remained acting her frozen heart out. She smirked coldly at her prisoners remaining a firm hand around the little girl.


End file.
